


A Slice of Life

by beedekka



Category: Daredevil (Comics)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Matchmaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 12:32:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1387762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beedekka/pseuds/beedekka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story about Matt and Foggy and Kirsten, and friendship and pizza and cake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Slice of Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dragonbat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonbat/gifts).



“Hey, come in!”

“Hi, Foggy. Thanks.” Matt stepped around the door and folded his cane away.

Even before factoring in the assistance of his enhanced senses, Matt could navigate his friend’s apartment without consciously thinking about it. He’d spent so much time there that the layout was as familiar as his own place, and all the years they'd roomed together in college meant that he had even managed to develop an uncanny super-sense for clutter hotspots where his friend was likely to have absentmindedly dropped down items that could be stepped or sat on. 

Much to Foggy’s consternation, Matt had also more than once swiftly laid hands on the single piece of clothing he had spent the past half an hour searching for in order to be able to leave the building dressed correctly. In fact, the query, “Did you think I wouldn’t notice you just answered the door to me wearing a $500 tuxedo with $10 thermal pyjama pants?” had become a legendary saying between them after one particularly egregious incident before the City Bar Association’s annual diversity dinner.

“I’m not late, am I?” Matt asked, suddenly wondering if the fact that Foggy wasn’t immediately darting away to finish doing something in the kitchen or to clear away case files from the table top meant that he’d had unexpected extra time to be ‘ready’ for their working-eating-meeting.

“Huh? No, why do you ask?”

“You’re usually still tidying or something when I get here, that’s all.”

“Oh, I did that earlier on this time. Turns out I brought home less paperwork to finish off than I thought.”

And the room smelled of polish. Foggy must have really had some time to kill… Matt wasn’t complaining – it was a lot better than the regular smell of cheap snacks and sugary drinks that hovered in the air around him. He moved over to the couch and flopped down into the worn cushions, stretching his legs out. He ached from taking a metal bar to the knee in an altercation with a would-be mugger the previous night, and it felt good to take the weight off and drop his guard a little in the privacy of Foggy’s home. 

“You okay?” Foggy asked after he’d flexed his knee enough times that it must have looked like it was bothering him, and Matt nodded.

“Yeah, someone got a lucky hit on me. It’s nothing.”

“Good, because… I… I’ve invited someone else to come around tonight. But if you’re not…”

“No, no,” Matt interjected. “I’m really fine. Is it Dina?”

“Um, sort of.”

“Sort of? What does that mean?”

“Well, actually it’s Dina’s roommate.”

Matt laughed. “Right, so not in fact Dina in any way, then? Hang on, isn’t her roommate…”

“Kirsten McDuffie,” Foggy finished off for him.

“Oh, Foggy!” Now the unusually presentable apartment started to make sense. “Will you tell me this isn’t the poorly-disguised match-making situation it suddenly seems like it is?”

Foggy looked guilty for a moment, but then a smile crept across his face. “Will you tell _me_ that you don’t like her?” He sat down and settled back in the armchair on the other side of the coffee table. “Well?” he prodded, and Matt could feel his accompanying expectant look. 

“She’s nice, sure. And I know we’ve been winding each other up a little lately, and that it might have looked a bit…”

“A lot…”

“…flirty. But she’s the assistant DA. You know it yourself that the firm’s already getting flak for the whole ‘I Am Daredevil’ thing; me getting involved with her could potentially get even more press attention put on our integrity.”

“I was just asking if you liked her, not for a list of reasons why other people might judge you about it.”

“She’s coming here tonight? Now?”

“Yes, and that still wasn’t an answer.”

“Foggy…” Matt could tell he hadn’t stopped fixing him with that look; the cross-examination face. “Okay. Yes, I do. But I’m not sure that…”

“I knew it! So now I’m going to get some drinks ready, and you can spend some time flipping through your library of Matt Murdock patented 'devastatingly witty and disarming conversational quips' in preparation to impress our guest.”

“I can’t believe you set me up with your girlfriend’s roommate!” Matt exclaimed. “That's what people do in college.” He shook his head. “We haven’t progressed from college dating techniques.”

Foggy had stood up but he suddenly stopped short, and Matt heard him intake a tiny sharp breath as he went to move again. “Is _your_ knee alright?” he inquired. “That sounded like you’re in pain.”

“Eh, I’m not really. It’s just joints. Maybe our dating is stuck in college, but my body’s prematurely ageing from all the stress you put me through!”

Matt considered that a bit of a half-joke, half-truth but Foggy accompanied it with a chuckle so he smiled again too.

“When is she going to be here?”

“Any minute now.” 

As if on cue, there was suddenly a knock on the front door.

“Perfect! She’s certainly punctual.” Foggy was making his way to the door but Matt called out to stop him for a second.

“Wait.” He stood up. “Do I look okay? I was expecting this to just be you and me.” Matt was regretting his very casual choice of clothes now.

“Yes, you look fine.”

“And Foggy, this isn’t a surprise for her too, is it? I mean, she knows _I’m_ going to be here, right?”

“Um, Matt, don’t you think it might have seemed a bit strange if I’d asked my girlfriend’s roomie to come over to dinner with just me tonight? Now quit worrying and start being your normal suave self, please, so I can answer the door before she thinks we’re standing her up!”

Foggy opened the door and Matt smiled in readiness to greet Kirsten. At the same time, he silently simultaneously cursed and thanked his friend for the unexpected date - trust Foggy to guess that he would inevitably talk himself out of meeting up with her outside work if it was left up to him, but did he _have_ to pick the night Matt was wearing old tennis shoes and a faded sweater to spring the surprise?

“Hello, Foggy.”

“Hello! Come in, come in.”

“Matt, how are you?”

“Hi Kirsten, I’m fine.”

When she’d come further into the room, he could tell she was wearing a different perfume to the one he was familiar with from the other times they'd met. It was sweet and mingled complementarily with the smell of what she was carrying; a bakery carton, Matt thought, with chocolate doughnuts or cake, perhaps?

“I brought dessert,” she said cheerfully, popping the box open to show the contents. “It’s a very traditional recipe; I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, Matt.”

He could smell the rich cocoa aroma rising more strongly from the open lid, with a hint of coffee underneath it. Between that, the smirk in her voice as she said his name, and Foggy’s appreciative ‘mmm’, Matt knew exactly what kind of cake Kirsten had chosen.

“Devil’s Food,” he exclaimed, playing along. “That’s very thoughtful of you to bring Foggy’s favourite.”

“Not yours?” she asked in a parody of innocence.

“I’ve no idea why you’d expect I was anything other than angelic in my taste,” he answered. It was true, ironically – the lighter, fresher flavour of Angel’s Food was more pleasant to his senses, and his first choice of the two kinds.

“Oh, thank you, Kirsten. I’ll put it over here.” Foggy was already poised to take the box from Kirsten, and as she handed it over to be carried to the countertop, Matt caught a second’s pause between them that he assumed was Foggy giving her a ‘look’ for the devil joke. 

The ‘Matt Murdock is Daredevil’ shtick _was_ wearing thinner on him with every occasion someone brought it up; for however charming and inventive Kirsten was about it, the courtroom opponents of Nelson  & Murdock were less amusing in their efforts to disrupt and derail every case he came near with suggestions that his ‘well-known alter ego’ was of great relevance to proceedings. Foggy’s consternation didn’t seem to perturb her, though. 

“It’s so nice of you to invite me over tonight. I hope we’re not likely to be interrupted by anyone having to rush off suddenly to – I don’t know – get changed for some reason… Or to deal with some highly important incident? I mean, that would be unexpected, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m sure that would be very unlikely, yes,” Matt answered. “Unless Foggy is planning on surprising us by slipping into 'something a little more comfortable' partway through the evening.”

“Well, actually, I’m not going to do _that_ , but I might slip out to see Dina later…” Foggy trailed off.

Matt allowed himself a wry smile. Dina was probably waiting poised by the phone right now, ready to ring Foggy up and ask him to come over as soon as possible. He’d probably even only cooked enough food for two. "Look, if you guys don't mind I've got an idea for tonight," he began. "Foggy, it'd feel weird for you to be making yourself scarce from your own home - why don't you call Dina and ask her to come over here, too. If there isn't enough food for four, you can wrap it up for tomorrow and we'll get in a big order of pizza to go with the wonderful cake Kirsten has. Does that sound good to you, Kirsten?"

"Sure, I haven't double-dated since college but it's always fun," she answered.

Matt grinned. " _See_ what I was saying about the college thing, Foggy?"

"An evening of pizza and cake, sitting on the floor of someone's room with your best friend and their date who's also best friends with your date? I don't know *what* you mean!" Foggy laughed. "Okay, I'll get Dina over here." 

Foggy went into the other room to make the phone call, and Matt turned to Kirsten. "I hope you _don't_ mind..."

"No, not at all," Kirsten said quickly. "I meant it - it's always fun to spend time like this."

"And if you still want to after tonight, I'll book a table at a restaurant and we can go out next week, just us."

"Sure, I'd like that." Kirsten stepped a little closer and Matt wondered for a second what she was going to do. When she spoke again, her voice was lower, but the playful tone was back. "And tell me, when we do go out for supper, should I make sure to bring a long spoon?"

Matt couldn't help smiling again. She was nothing if not persistent! A tiny part of him was tempted to give a little ground, to say 'maybe...' or 'find out', but Foggy saved him from himself by loudly arriving back into the room.

"She's on her way. Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt!"

"That's okay," Matt jumped in gratefully. "Now, did you say you were going to get some drinks earlier, Foggy?"

"Yes! Kirsten, what would you like? Come and have a look."

As she stepped away to go and see, Matt sat back down on the couch and took the chance to flex his aching knee again while no one was looking. Then he resolved to try and ignore it for the rest of the evening. It was a probably a good idea: however much his body might want to remind him he was Daredevil - and however much Kirsten kept trying to 'remind' him as well - tonight felt like it was going to be a great chance to kick back and relax with good friends and good conversation, and forget some of the pressures of his identity-juggling act for a while.

If he was lucky, there wouldn’t be any further ‘Daredevil’ teasing now that Kirsten had already got in three good tries, Matt thought. Then he immediately felt like groaning out loud as he realised what Foggy’s favourite pizza order was...

 

...‘Devilishly Hot’!

 

-End-


End file.
